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Troy
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Troy
Post Number: 106
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - 12:27 am: | 
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During a panel discussion at the Harelm Book Fair Called: The Rise and Fall of American Soul; Toure (the author of Portable Promised Land: http://aalbc.com/reviews/the_portable_promise_land.htm); said one of the contribution of the Hip-Hop culture is that we have taken the hugely monstrous word [the n word] and have turned it into a "little pet". This comment was promptly meet with boos. Hurray for the audience!
Words have to have meaning. If I call you "Bit-h" enough times does the word lose it's meaning or does the recipient simply begin conform to the definition?
They say words don't have meaning -- people do. However I doubt Toure would consider a white guy calling him a ni--er to his face to be a little pet name.
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Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 501
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - 01:12 pm: |
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Troy:
Did Toure go further in explaining what he meant, or, once booed, did he just duck down? |
Troy
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Troy
Post Number: 114
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - 07:15 pm: |
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He tried to say something, but it did not make an impact. It was also near the end of the panel.
Actually C-Span captured this panel as well. Hopefully that part was recorded. I need to watch the panel myself... |
Rashena
Regular Poster
Username: Rashena
Post Number: 46
Registered: 08-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, September 09, 2004 - 10:10 pm: |
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He actually thanks the word "nigga" in his acknowledgements in his new book, Soul City....
I wonder what he ingests when he writes, SUCH an imagination! LOL!
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Miss_wysteria
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Miss_wysteria
Post Number: 82
Registered: 09-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, September 10, 2004 - 07:08 am: |
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My only problem with African Americans and the word "nigger" is that they've never accurately identified (for their children) what the word really means.
You find that most people think ignorance, poor English, poverty, dark skin and blackness in general is what a nigger is.
But a nigger is a non-owner of self. He co-opts the identity of the dominant culture and uses his life in the service of building up the dominant culture while tearing his own down. You will find that many of the most educated, upper class blacks are truly "niggers". They treat their own identity as "transitory"--AND,rather than preserving and protecting their own culture, they create it and then hand it over to the dominant culture (look at JAZZ)--niggers systematically breed themselves as close to their master's image as possible. That's what a nigger is. They are transitory--possessing no stability grounded in self and self-ownership. Everything they come from--is eventually abandonded, denied or made into a grave that they visit with "WORDS" (cheap sentiment).
To me, Michael Jackson is the penultimate nigger.
They even have a "Michael Jackson Pill" flooding Africa now--that purports to make you lighter and brighter--thus creating new "niggers"...and helping Jackson to further leave his MARK FOR HUMANITY...on the world.
That's why I make sure to use and explore the word in work. So that Black Americans will begin to realize what that word really means.
Whether they like it or not.
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Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 1279
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, September 10, 2004 - 12:40 pm: |
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Tsk-tsk, what would all of us NATURAL Africa-Americans do if we weren't regularly scolded by this Sudanese Carpetbagger who wasn't even born in this country and who is not an authentic heir to its black legacy because she is not descended from slaves of West African origin and may even be the spawn of those who sold our ancestors into bondage?? Sorry, my "Perennial-Pretender-To-The-Throne", I couldn't pass up this post of yours, and it's just too hard not to heckle you because you make it so easy with your pseudo-omniscience. Your favorite house-nigga wonders when you will stop being a self-appointed critic who thinks she knows the score in spite of the fact that she comes from a country of losers. Yeah, yeah, I know the spiel of your standard response. I've heard it all before, so spare me the drama. |
Miss_wysteria
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Miss_wysteria
Post Number: 89
Registered: 09-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, September 10, 2004 - 12:47 pm: |
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The fact remains...Cynique....that all voices and opinions shall be heard.
Not just those of the house niggers.
And those of us who are in literature/public discourse and who have a responsibility to speak truth to power....and are quite willing to be heckled and to disagree.....SHALL NEVER STOP.
And thanks for saying that I come from a country of LOSERS.
Like America, Sudan is overrun with niggers and house niggers, too. That is true.
It's a BLACK THANG...worldwide.
Carry on jealous redbone...while I give birth to a NEW son.
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Miss_wysteria
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Miss_wysteria
Post Number: 90
Registered: 09-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, September 10, 2004 - 01:00 pm: |
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And just for the record, many of the most brilliant, highly respected BLACK MALE THINKERS on race, color, etc.....seek out, converse with and ask for MY OPINION on these matters...more than regularly.
They include Derrick Bell, Asa Hilliard, Nigeria's legendary writer/scholar "Chinweizu", Professor Golan Polke in London--Dr. Kwaku Lynn Person here in California, Joe Madison, Walter Fauntelroy....and the list....is GROWING.
People PAY MONEY NOW for my opinion Cyn-Tique
So while I respect your right to disagree--I think you're being an idiot by suggesting that I shouldn't have an opinion or that mines--especially because of my DUALITY and experience WORLD WIDE---should somehow be REPRESSED....
...just because you've always been jealous of me and don't LIKE ME, because I'm actually doing something with my life and not fingering Elves and dreaming about a white man named VIGGO.
I pity you, Cynique. So I try very hard to be nice to you.
Fight yourself...by yourself...and more power to you.
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Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 1287
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, September 11, 2004 - 02:04 pm: |
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I know nobody will believe me, but I've exercised EXTREME will power and avoided reading what are probably 2 loooong posts by Miss Wysteria. I did this because I know it will only ignite the ongoing fireworks between me and her. I think the board is tired of hearing us go at it, especially since we never change each other's minds about anything. Don't read them, Cynique. Don't do it! I'm tryyyying. Help me, Jesus. |
Rashena
Regular Poster
Username: Rashena
Post Number: 47
Registered: 08-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, September 12, 2004 - 04:00 am: |
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Have you seen Toure's website? I just went to it, it's pretty cool!
www.toure.com |
Rashena
Regular Poster
Username: Rashena
Post Number: 48
Registered: 08-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, September 12, 2004 - 04:16 am: |
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It's actually GREAT! He has tons of his work on there, too tired to read it now though.  |
Crystal
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Crystal
Post Number: 96
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, September 13, 2004 - 06:54 pm: |
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Sorry Miss Wysteria but your definition sounds backwards to me. As I understand it you are saying a nigger is a black person that is trying to be/wants to be/acting like “white”. I don’t think that’s what a white person is thinking when they use the term. And it sure isn’t what I mean when I use it. I mean a regular ‘ol, straight-up black person. Period. It has nothing to do with how folks speak or the economic situation. It has no negative connotation for me. I’m sure it does for white folks that use it but I’ve never had a white person call me a nigger to my face nor have I heard one use it in a personal conversation with me. Me and mine use it amongst ourselves from time to time as a form of endearment towards each other. My Nigga! That Nigga’s Crazy! Nigga Please! This endearment even comes across when we use it in anger because we know that only someone close to us would use it. Since it's become so non-pc we don't use it as much as we used to but it has its place.
Now forgive me for not knowing the true origins of the word because I haven’t read the book and it ain’t that important to me because the word doesn’t bother me at all and I use it all the time … but I’m assuming that the white people of America coined the word to describe black people of America so I think our definitions are the most valid.
Of course, this is all my opinion and you are welcome to yours.
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Miss_wysteria
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Miss_wysteria
Post Number: 116
Registered: 09-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, September 13, 2004 - 07:53 pm: |
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Actually, CRYSTAL..
the word "nigger" was first used in AFRICA on the people of Africa...LONG before "a fraction" of those people were brought to the United States. They CAME HERE being called "nigger".
TO THIS DAY....the word "nigger" is used in over 17 African nations....albeit....they usually say "Pogo Nigger".
In INDIA...for the entire 100 years that they were colonized by WHITE BRITISH....they were called "NIGGER" and the word is still used in INDIA.
The word "nigger" denotes a "NON-OWNER OF SELF"...A NON HUMAN WORKER...who is like a "zombie" that does the bidding of his MASTER and ascribes to become as much LIKE HIS MASTER as possible.
Hence Malcolm X's damnation of the word "WE"...whenever blacks in Africa and the U.S. talk about their Master and themselves..."WE", as if this "WE-ness" is a reality, which it is not.
IN AMERICA...they wrote into LAW that a "nigger" is "3 fifths of a human being"...in other words, a Non-Human, Non-Owner of Self, born to be a SLAVE (a zombie who performs tasks).
Until we realize that the word NIGGER is a real true state of being separate from a racial "slurr"...and that there are still... MILLIONS of blacks world wide..... whose fullfillment in life is to aquire "humanity" by becoming the living embodiement of their white master....then that MINDSET (in U.S. they call it "slave mentality") will never go away.
Black teenagers in Nigeria ingesting the "Michael Jackson Pill"--as they say, "to become lightskinned"---are simply trying to be made over in the image of their MASTER..which is what Michael Jackson did...because the "whiter" you are, the more acceptable and HUMAN you are (according to world society). You can't deny this. And those blacks who believe this mantra and are COMPLICIT...that "whiteness or lightness" is just SUPERIOR or...CLOSER to GOD...definitely fit the description of what a "nigger" really is.
If Black People are ever going to regain their "status" (in their own minds) of their Humanity and their Worthiness and the God-given beauty of their Blackness and their right to self-determination and self love....then
the actual living breathing "niggers" have to be bred out of the black community...whether that community be in South Africa or Sudan or London or Jamaica or The United States.
And that "STATE" has to be identified by the BLACKS who are not "niggers".
And the fact is....if you go back to my country (Sudan), you will find that there is a degree of "nigger-ness" in almost every single black person there.
They have been beaten down so long and dehumanized to such a degree...that they all secretly believe that "black skin" is a CURSE by GOD.
And I don't want niggers for children. I want healthy, strong, fully humanized INDIVIDUALS who understand that there is nothing greater than "blackness" and that ALL HUMAN BEINGS are the children of God...not just those privileaged by lighter skin color or by whiteness.
And I want my black children to know...that they DESERVE to exist as themselves..in their own image.
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Carey
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Carey
Post Number: 225
Registered: 05-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, September 14, 2004 - 11:37 am: |
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Hello Ko......Sun......ahh....Wiz....ahh...Damn, Hello Ms. Thomas .
You know I've been reading your posts for some time and ......well generally (don't want to get in a rowe with you) I, let's say, scan through many of them. Today I read the above and I must say you enlightened me. Now of course you could be advancing your own agenda but that's cool, however your term/definition sounds plausible so hey, I'll run with it.
For those that don't know, and how could they, this women and I have exchanged e-mails over the years and she's been nice enough to send me copies of her books. I've tried to stay clear of her on the board for various reasons (good and bad) yet I still consider her a friend. Let's face it, we don't always agree with our friends and if we did something ain't right, somebody is kissin' somebodies ass and I ain't into that *smile*. Anyway Ms. your post gave me something to think about and use even if it's true or not, it sounds good (lol). How is Thomas, tell him I said hello.
btw, I don't think I've recieved your latest offering........***hands held out wide, palms up, quizzicle look on face, head sort of cocked to the side ***
Carey |
Miss_wysteria
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Miss_wysteria
Post Number: 122
Registered: 09-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, September 14, 2004 - 12:19 pm: |
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Carey, I am so grateful for your kind words...and of course I will arrange to send you a book.
This one is a love story between a black man and a black woman over 26,000 years...and it's my first book that BLACK MEN actually love as much as black women! So I think you will like it.
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Crystal
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Crystal
Post Number: 98
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, September 14, 2004 - 01:17 pm: |
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OK, as I admitted I didn’t know the origin of the word so thanks for that and I'll think on it. Also, I don’t think a “non owner of self” equates exactly with “trying to be white” so I guess I was just spouting off without knowing what I was talking about. Something I tend not to do – and this is why. Carry on. |
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